Novecento Guitar Sonatinas
(C) 2019 – Brilliant Classics
Anno di pubblicazione: 2019
Etichetta discografica: Brilliant Classics
Periodo: 21 Settembre 2016 - 18 Settembre 2018
Sede: Chiesa della Solitudine (NU)
Chitarra: Giuseppe Guaglardo
Corde: Augustine Imperials
Novecento Guitar Sonatinas è un cofanetto di 4 CD contenente una selezione di diciassette sonatine per chitarra sola di autori del XX e del XXI secolo. Si tratta del terzo tassello del progetto discografico decennale Novecento Guitar. La release è distribuita da Brilliant Classics. La tracklist completa è disponibile da questo link.
Novecento Guitar Sonatinas è il terzo tassello della serie di pubblicazioni discografiche "Novecento Guitar". La serie prevede le seguenti uscite:
Novecento Guitar Preludes (2012)
Novecento Guitar Sonatas (2014)
Novecento Guitar Sonatinas (2019)
Novecento Guitar Variations (2022)
Dal sito dell'editore:
This survey is the sequel to comparably comprehensive Brilliant Classics collections of 20th-century guitar preludes (BC9292) and sonatas (BC9455). The sonatinas included take their place as part of a long process of study conducted by Cristiano Porqueddu over the past few years. The high percentage of world premiere recordings - more than half of the entire tracklist - should give a good idea of how the research was conducted: as with the two previous releases, space has been given to those works that rarely appear either in concert or on record, in order to give voice to a considerable amount of excellent music almost completely ignored. Porqueddu made a longlist of over 60 sonatinas by 20th-century and by living composers, before narrowing down the final choice to the 17 performed here.
Before Porqueddu, of course, there was the pioneer of modern guitar performance a century ago, Andres Segovia, who commissioned and inspired countless composers to write for him. One of those was the English composer Cyril Scott, and while Segovia expressed some misgivings about the result – ‘I’m not head over heels about it’, he wrote to his friend Manuel Ponce – the three-movement Sonatina makes a fine test of any guitarist’s musicianship and effectively inhabits the Spanish guitar tradition with its mysterious slow introduction and hypnotic central, Flamenco-style slow movement.
The sonatinas by Mark Delpriora, Carlos Surinach and Albert Harris that follow on CD1 are no less compressed in expression, using the sonatina form to pack ideas into ten minutes that would occupy half an hour in the hands of lesser composers. The seven works of Angelo Gilardino that occupy CDs 2 and 3 are more expansive, though full of character, testifying to the unique relationship between composer and performer: Porqueddu himself. On CD4, the pieces by Alfredo Franco and Franco Cavallone were also composed with Porqueddu in mind, while the Sonatina Lirica by Segovia’s English pupil Chris Duarte is a hidden gem. ‘a most compelling collection from five composers, none of whom were guitarists… coruscating variety, fine recorded sound and lovingly shaped playing.’ MusicWeb International (Preludes). ‘Porqueddu’s work is once more of excellent quality and shows how he is able to create individual interpretations of contemporary repertoire.’ Seicorde (Sonatas).
Another unique concept, compiled and performed by Cristiano Porqueddu: 20th Century Guitar Sonatinas.
Presented on 4 CDs are Sonatinas by Cyril Scott, Mark Delpriora, Carlos Surinach, Virgilio Mortari, Albert Harris, Angelo Gilardino, Alfredo Franco, John Duarte, Vitaly Kharisov and Franco Cavallone.
Although very different in style these sonatinas present, in their concise format, all the vibrant energy and inventiveness of the 20th century.
Played with supreme command over style and technique by master guitarist Cristiano Porqueddu.
Earlier successful issues by Porqueddu are “20th century Guitar Preludes”, “20th century Guitar Sonatas” and Easy Studies for Guitar.
A great opportunity to collect original guitar repertoire by a great diversity of composers in one set!

La casa discografica Brilliant Classics pubblica il CD Gilardino: Music for Guitar Quartet contenente opere per quartetto di chitarre del compositore contemporaneo @Angelo Gilardino
La tracklist:
Dal sito dell'editore:
Premiere recordings of original music and transcriptions, all imbued with the Mediterranean colour and flamboyance of the guitar quartet genre and played with polish by a renowned Italian ensemble.
Born in 1941, Angelo Gilardino enjoys an extensive discography on Brilliant Classics, which has won international acclaim both for the beauty of the music and the authority and sensitivity of the performances. 'Listen with confidence,’ said the online-jazz.net journal of a trio of guitar concertos (BC94747): ‘Here is transparent art, which does not feel the need to raise its voice: art masterfully built, but in which vitality springs forth. His prime expressive vehicle is the guitar, and he is an absolute master of all its secrets. The album may be enjoyed with uninterrupted pleasure. It represents a perfect introduction to the world of this remarkable composer, who has enriched the Italian tradition with music of real inspiration and high craftsmanship.’
In 2008 Gilardino arranged a set of his solo studies based on the music of Mauro Giuliani and dedicated them to the ensemble on this album, the Quartetto Santórsola. They comprise seven brief pieces, with a dashing tarantella at their heart. The year previously, he had written a three-movement Sinfonietta expressly for guitar quartet, in which each movement pays tribute to an inspirational figure in the history of the instrument from the early part of the last century: Ferenc Farkas, Alexander Tansman and finally Teresa de Rogatis, evoking their musical personalities and playing styles within a fast-slow-fast design that makes for a substantial work in its own right.
Gilardino’s own work is complemented here by his transcription of ‘Andalucia’, a piano cycle by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. As Gilardino himself observes in a booklet essay, the cycle belongs to the Spanish heritage of Albéniz and Granados. ‘It seemed appropriate to make this version for four guitars that, while not competing with the dynamic range of the piano original, nonetheless lives up to the colour and brilliance of Lecuona’s inspiration.’
Angelo Gilardino is one of the most important guitar composers of the last half century. His unique style is a blend of the old and new, folk art and contemporary music, from Mozart to Messiaen, all his works are illuminated by a warm and mediterranean glow, a feeling of humanity and love for life.
This new recording presents works for 4 guitars: the Sinfonietta, containing musical portraits of Ferenc Farkas, Alexandre Tansman and Teresa de Rogatis; the Sonetti Giuliani, inspired by the Studies by Mauro Giuliani, and Gilardino’s transcription for 4 guitars of the cycle Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona, atmospheric evocations of the Alhambra, Cordoba and others.
Excellent performances by the Quartetto Santórsola, consisting of 4 young Italian guitar virtuosos.